"Game Change": How accurate was the film?
"Game Change"
/ HBOThe film, which chronicles Republican John McCain's 2008 presidential campaign, continues to stir up buzz over its portrayal of Sen. McCain and then-Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, played by Ed Harris and Julianne Moore, respectively.
Pictures: Sarah PalinPictures: Julianne Moore
Read more: How Julianne Moore tackled Sarah Palin
On Sunday, director Jay Roach and screenwriter Danny Strong appeared on CNN's "Reliable Sources" to answer questions.
Strong said they interviewed about 25 people in the McCain camp, with the exception of McCain, Palin and McCain campaign advisor Mark Salter.
"We were able to interview almost every character that appears on screen and several people within the campaign who don't appear on screen," Strong said, adding, "The stories that we heard were corroborated by 10, 12, 15 people so it was never just one or two persons' account of the event."
Meanwhile, both Palin and McCain have said they had no plans to watch the movie.
"I believe my family has the right priorities and knows what really matters," Palin told ABC News on Friday when asked whether she would watch the movie. "For instance, our son called from Afghanistan yesterday and he sounded good and that's what matters. Being in the good graces of Hollywood's 'Team Obama' isn't top of my list," Palin said.
McCain said he didn't watch the film (he watched hockey instead), arguing it's "based on a book that's completely biased, and with unattributed quotes."
Still, he had heard a thing or two about it.
"I have been told I am portrayed as using an exceeding amount of coarse language," McCain said on "Fox News Sunday." "I don't use coarse language very often. I have a larger vocabulary than that."
Tell us: What did you think about "Game Change"?
Julianne Moore
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When and how did we know that the upcoming HBO film "Game Change" would be a total and complete hit job produced only with destroying Sarah Palin in mind? Well, we knew that the moment the film was announced back in March of 2011. For starters, the material upon which the film is based, the book "Game Change," written by left-wing political journalists Mark Halperin and John Heilemann, is itself a hit-job, and a poorly sourced one at that.
HBO claims that "Game Change, the book, was applauded by audiences and pundits on both ends of the political spectrum." Really? If this is true, just like the writers of the book, HBO doesn't name any of their sources to back it up. There are plenty of people on the record however, who did not applaud John Heilemann and Mark Halperin's work.
Howard Kurtz wrote that the authors not identifying their sources was a "recurring weakness" in the book, and later added: The most cooperative sources may have gotten to spin the narrative their way, and no one - such as Steve Schmidt, the former McCain aide who has publicly criticized Palin - was pressed to be on the record."
Don Campbell from USA Today called it: "A gossipy, behind-the-scenes presidential campaign book once again illustrates how the public is poorly served by some in the political press corps."
There were people who were close to Palin during the 2008 campaign who took issue with Heilemann and Halperin's work, however. During a conference call with reporters, Jason Recher, who worked for Sarah Palin during the 2008 campaign, said that the book did not reflect reality.
From the Associated Press: "Palin wasn't the primary focus of the book, and he said he told screenwriter and co-executive producer Danny Strong that the book "absolutely, unequivocally" did not accurately reflect his time with the McCain campaign.
During the same conference call, Randy Scheunemann, who also worked as an adviser to Palin during the presidential campaign said: "If the book was very misleading, the movie's going to be far worse." Other current and former aides to Palin who attended the conference call, criticized Heilemann and Halperin "for writing about Palin when they weren't physically there covering the things that were reported in the book."
"Game Change," which is to air March 10, depicts Scheunemann explaining to Palin that Germany was the antagonist in both World Wars. (In the scene, a note-taking Palin, played by Julianne Moore, does not indicate whether she knew this or not.)
"The idea that there was at any point that Gov. Palin expressed any uncertainty as to who were the various sides in World War I or World War II ... or any other war is absolutely untrue," Scheunemann said. "She was incredibly intelligent. She asked very informed questions. She was very interested and she wanted to understand John McCain's view of foreign policy because she wanted to be the best possible vice presidential nominee."
"We all know Palin sells and the dramatization of Palin sells even more," said Stapleton, who, like Crawford and other Palin spokespeople, rarely if ever returned reporters' phone calls. "This is sick. The media has gone too far. You accepted the false narrative of a couple of people who sought revenge and fabricated a story more than three years ago," she said, referring to Schmidt and Wallace.
Recher and McMarlin traveled with Palin during the 2008 campaign and have been at Palin's side during nearly every public appearance she has made in the last year or so. Recher said he reviewed daily schedules and plane manifests from the campaign and concluded that neither author of "Game Change" was ever present, and that Schmidt was present on only five of 200 bus or plane trips taken by Palin during her two months of campaigning.
"We were able to interview almost every character that appears on screen and several people within the campaign who don't appear on screen," Strong said, adding, "The stories that we heard were corroborated by 10, 12, 15 people so it was never just one or two persons' account of the event."
Who knows, but the movie did depict things that were rumored during the campaign.
The point isn't whether her supporters will continue to support her, of course they will. It was a telling moment in the film when Todd tells her, essentially, that the key to performing well in the debate is to remember that the audience, for the most part is a dumb as she is.
I didn't see this film as a condemnation of Sarah Palin, she is who she is, and it isn't her fault. If the chief of a democratic presidential campaign pulled up in a caravan of armored SUVs and asked a bum on the corner who had pee'd in his pants if they wanted to be the vice president, my guess is that they would say yes. The fact that he doesn't know anything about anything wouldn't matter to him, precisely because you have to understand the world to understand that it matters.
The film is in reality a blistering attack on the entire GOP. The fact that the majority of the GOP base insists on proud displays of ignorance has the entire party trapped by their own bs.
If a republican presidential candidate running for the nomination of their party were to state unequivocally that they believed the world was older than 6,000 -- their campaign would evaporate within 24 hours.
The rank and file Republican loves Palin because she IS them, an ignoramous who, regarless of whether or not she would lend her neighbor some sugar if they needed it, has about as much business being in the Oval Office, as a person who can't fly an airplane has being in the cockpit of one.
God damn the Republican party for trying to foist this dangerously ignorant person on this country. The right wingers are screaming and yelling about "What about the dunce in the White House... " blah blah blah. Their reaction isn't surprising, BUT there are many people who know better.
Liberal: "But she didn't even know why there are two Koreas. She thinks Africa is a country, and that seeing Russia from her window gives her foreign policy chops..."
Conservative: "So what? It's that Odummy who is the real dummy. He doesn't know less than she knows. He's dumber than dumb. What a dummy. The liberal press is what's dumb. Dumb dumb dumb."
I get it that some of you don't like paying taxes, but there is no excuse to risk putting someone so completely unaware of basic geography, history, law, science, etc. in the Oval Office. In fact, it is a patent act of treason to do so.
My 2¢.
However, as the movie progresses, it becomes obvious that the blatant betrayal by members of Sen. John McCain's own staff is the culprit. After the film concludes, the permeation of this betrayal rises to intoxication.
Palin is not the villain. The villains are two of McCain's staffers, Steve Schmidt and Nicolle Wallace.
And she was 3rd in line for the Presidency. Now that is a scary thought!
So I'm guessing it was pretty much accurate.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
I thought the film "Game Change" was pretty fair and accurate. What "Game Change" illustrated was that the McCain campaign was so desperate they turned to a VP pick whose narcissism was only outweighed by her complete lack of knowledge, not only of foreign policy, but civics as well. When asked even basic questions by staffers and interviewers, Julianne Moore's Palin gave that deer in the headlights look or jumbled together some incoherent response.
Woody Harrelson's Steve Schmidt character went through the character arc from being an excited about putting Sarah Palin on the ticket, to becoming frustrated and remorseful when it became obvious that she was a self-absorbed, small town dimwit who was WAY out of her league to be running for an office WAY above her pay grade.
"Game Change" gave a good behind the scenes look at a campaign is disarray. The scene between Schmidt and the press secretary illustrated this. You could see the finger pointing going on that must have happened in real life. How could a candidate so blatantly unqualified have slipped through the vetting process?
The Palin fans will decry the film in the usual way using familiar slogans such as "liberal", "Hollwood", "elitist" etc. because of it depicting Palin being a lightweight, know-nothing, dunce who put her own interests before that of the campaign. Palin was more interested in her approval ratings in Alaska than she was preparing for Katie Curric interview and blamed everyone else for her failures. Eventually she thought the campaign was about her, not Senator McCain.
It is shocking that in the 21st century with all the information available about anyone that such a failure to properly vet someone for such a high position could take place. The thought of Sarah Palin being a heartbeat away from a 72 Y/O's heart is truly scary thought. It is almost as scary as number of dimwits who STILL, to this day, glorify her.
Gee, I thought that's how Obama got elected...
Idiot.